Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Obviously, the main focus of Austin Bloggy Limits is music but as many of you who know me in real life know, my boyfriend (Mr. S.) is a film critic. This means that I end up seeing A LOT of films each year. I don't go to all of the film festivals in town like he does, although I do go to Austin Film Fest but we go to the theater a couple of times a week to see anything new and noteworthy. I also have the opportunity to see screeners that he is sent for review.

Year-end film lists can be tricky because of the timing of films. It's not as neat and tidy as music where GENERALLY you know exactly what year an album was released. With films, they can do the festival circuit and not get released to the public until much later. In the case of the film, Klown it was actually released in 2010 but was then re-released in 2012. With Sound of My Voice it did the festival circuit in 2011 but the studio held it until 2012. Then there's all of the films that were officially released in New York and L.A. in late 2012 but didn't play here in Austin until January. Hence, why I'm not posting this until now.

I'm sure some of you will peruse this list and see some glaring omissions or you will be shocked and appalled by what I have included. So, let's remember that art is subjective. Also, just because it's critically acclaimed doesn't mean it's one of my favorites. The converse is true as well, just because I included a film amongst my favorites doesn't mean it was a critical darling. Lincoln is a film, which received a lot of critical praise and will most likely win a lot of Oscars but I didn't like it. I think Daniel Day Lewis gave an excellent performance but that's not enough to make me like the film. For that matter, I think that Joaquin Phoenix's performance in The Master was more impressive than DDL's but it isn't going to win the Oscar. The Master was another film filled with fantastic performances and beautiful cinematography and I feel lucky to have seen it projected on 70mm film here in Austin. However, it didn't breach my top 30 as one of my favorite overall films of 2012.

I suspect I'll also receive comments for including The Avengers but not The Dark Knight Rises to which I say, Joss Whedon. I'd also like to note that I actually liked Cloud Atlas but it just didn't make my top 30. Oh, one more thing, click any movie poster to jump to the trailer in a new window. Now that all of that is out of the way, let's get to the list shall we?